Traumafessions :: Reader Danny R. on Evil Ed’s Demise in Fright Night

This scene has haunted me for a while. I was going through a vampire phase during the 6th grade, and had fallen in love with THE LOST BOYS. I loved the bloody effects and the dark humor. Well, since I liked it so much, my father got me one of those “two-for-one” packs, vampire themed, with a DVD copy of THE LOST BOYS. The other DVD was FRIGHT NIGHT, which my cousin Derrick told my parents was perfectly okay for me to watch, and no worse than lost boys. And, for the most part, it wasn’t. In fact, the blood throughout the first half of the movie was nothing compared to the constant slashing in THE LOST BOYS. I liked it a lot, and it would have been my new favorite if it weren’t for one terrible scene: The death of Evil Ed.

I think what made it so brutal was the fact that, unlike the guys in THE LOST BOYS (who, to me, all looked like full-grown adults), Evil Ed was just a kid. He was probably my favorite character in the movie. Now, I would have been more than okay if he had simply been staked and died as a werewolf. But he didn’t. After screaming his brains out for a good forty seconds as a hellish dog-beast, he turns back into a 14-year-old kid. And then he continues to squirm in agony, making possibly the most gut-wrenching noises ever recorded on film.

But I would have been okay if it weren’t for a single shot. Just the two second shot of the young boy, covered in blood and throwing his head back, eyes full of unimaginable pain, still has the ability to chill me. He doesn’t die in a comic way, or a “gross” way. He dies in the exact way that you would expect a 14-year-old with a table leg through his chest to die, screaming in agony. For such a light movie, it’s an incredibly intense and heavy scene that STILL makes me feel more ill than anything in a SAW/HOSTEL movie. Needless to say, I ran from the room and didn’t watch it again until last year when I turned fifteen. But every time I watch it, those screams stick with me for days after.

7 responses so far ↓

Fright Night is easily my favorite horror film from the 80’s. I remember watching it over and over with my sister when I was in high school. Roddy McDowell made a good movie absolutely great. And I agree, Ed’s death was a nasty bit of work. The pity and regret in Roddy’s face added to the discomfort.

Fright Night doesn’t get enough respect as one of the great vampire movies. Get past the dated ’80s clothing and soundtrack, and there’s still a wonderful little horror film. Chris Sarandon’s smug, debonair ladykiller (literally) was a breath of fresh air into vampire lore.

Fright Night has always been one of my favorites! My kindertrauma moment was always when the head vamp’s human servant buddy melted into a pile of skeletal goo. I don’t know what it was about that scene but it scared the CRAP out of me as a kid. It is also, somehow, closely linked to the ending of Dragonslayer in my mind. Both of those scenes scared me silly as a child.
(And I love both movies as an adult!)

I know I have mentioned it numerous times on here, but I absolutely love Fright Night! It, along with The Lost Boys, is my favorite vampire movie of the 80s. I love to say, “You’re so cool Brewster!” whenever I can think of a way to work it into a conversation.
Chris Sarandon, in my humble opinion, has to be one of the sexist vampires on film. I only have two words to prove it: club scene.